The COVID ordeal of the last year has impacted us all in many ways and raised many concerns. One of the most widely shared concerns is the negative impact it’s having on our children and young people. School closures, sports cancelations, social distancing; everything else they’ve experienced, everything else that’s been taken away from them raises a range of concerns from academic standing to mental health.
We’re using our current Easter message series to take a long look at influence, specifically the influence that Jesus of Nazareth has had on the history of the world and the influence his friends and followers can have in his name. We are especially focused on the next generation and we’re taking this opportunity to challenge parishioners to step up in support of our next generation ministry by making an investment in that ministry.
St. John writes:
Beloved, see what love the Father has bestowed us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are.
1 John 3:1
The almighty and eternal creator of absolutely everything in the heavens and on the earth invites us into a relationship in which we can call him Father. He bestows upon us the title of children. Other translations say “pay attention to the love God has lavished on us.” God gives it to us freely, but it cost him his Son. Jesus had to offer himself on the cross for us to become God’s children. God lavished his love by sending and sacrificing his Son. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection he is forming a family. The Church is God’s family. And one of our greatest responsibilities and high privileges as Christ-followers is to partner with God to help the next generation feel they are part of that family.
In the past year, it has become more important than ever to preach the message of God’s lavish love to the next generation. While our kids and students have experienced many losses in this Covid year, we are determined to make sure their faith in Christ and his church is not one of them. Let us instead meet this moment as an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to the formation, education, and celebration of faith that we want our young people to experience here at Nativity.
To learn more or get involved check it out at churchnativity.com/kids
